Kimberly J. Morgan

Kimberly J. Morgan

Professor of Political Science and International Affairs; Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, George Washington University

Connect with Kimberly

About Kimberly

Morgan's work examines the politics shaping public policies, with particular interests in migration and social welfare. She is the author Working Mothers and the Welfare State: Religion and the Politics of Work-Family Policy in Western Europe and the United States (Stanford 2006) and The Delegated Welfare State: Medicare, Markets, and the Governance of American Social Policy (Oxford 2011), and co-editor of several volumes, including The Many Hands of the State: Theorizing Political Authority and Social Control (Cambridge 2017).

Contributions

Using the Private Sector to Deliver Public Benefits

  • Andrea Louise Campbell

In the News

Opinion: "Supporting Working Parents is Good Policy and Good Politics," Kimberly J. Morgan, Policy Network, April 9, 2015.
Opinion: "Medicine: A Health Report," Kimberly J. Morgan, Dialogue, May 14, 2009.
Opinion: "America's Misguided Approach to Social Welfare," Kimberly J. Morgan, Foreign Affairs, January/February 2013.

Publications

"The Delegated Welfare State: Medicare, Markets, and the Governance of American Social Policy" (with Andrea Louise Campbell) (Oxford University Press, 2011).
Analyzes the mix of public and private authority in the delivery of social benefits and services in the United States, exploring both why government programs rely so heavily on contracting out, and the consequences for politics, policy effectiveness, and the beneficiaries of publicly-funded programs.
"Delegated Governance in the Affordable Care Act" (with Andrea Louise Campbell). Journal of Health Politics, Policy & Law 36, no. 3 (2011): 387-91.
Finds that contrary to conventional wisdom, the Obama health care reform does not lead to centralized federal power over health care, but relies upon state governments and private actors to administer much of the reform and provide its benefits.
"The Challenge of Faith" (with Sally Steenland), in A Woman’s Nation – The Shriver Report, edited by Heather Boushey and Ann O’Leary (Center for American Progress, 2009), 240-279.
Looks at the importance of faith in shaping the lives of many women today but also the ways in which many religions are ill-adapted to the struggles of modern women.
"The Political Path to a Dual-Earner/Dual-Carer Society: Pitfalls and Possibilities" Politics & Society 36, no. 3 (2008): 403-420.
Analyzing how it is that different countries have developed generous policies for working parents, this paper explores some of the political pitfalls along the way.
"Working Mothers and the Welfare State: Religion and the Politics of Work-Family Policies in Western Europe and the United States" (Stanford University Press, 2006).
Investigates the historical and political forces, including religion, that have influenced public policies for working families in Western nations.
"Financing the Welfare State: Elite Politics and the Decline of the Social Insurance Model in America" (with Andrea Louise Campbell). Studies in American Political Development 19, no. 2 (2005): 173-95.

Examines how social insurance programs such as Social Security have been financed since their creation, showing how political elites who once favored payroll taxes to pay for these programs gradually turned their back on this mode of finance – despite continued public support for it.